Show notes
In this episode I talk with Alakanani Itireleng, who founded the Satoshicentre in Botswana in 2014 and single-handedly built a growing Bitcoin community. She is the heart and center of Bitcoin education there, even the government is relying on her consultancy. We recorded this interview in February 2020, only days before the Covid-19 lockdowns went into effect. Her greatest ambition, the organization of a Bitcoin conference in Southern Africa will not come true soon. If you like to support her work and the Satoshicentre – please do so, you can find her on Twitter.If you have a question, feel free to scroll down, press the appropriate button and record your question. “Bitcoin is for everyone, Bitcoin is the currency of love.” – Alakanani Itireleng “Bitcoin is allowing me to use and receive money from anyone and to send it to anyone around the world without discriminating. That’s the most excellent thing about Bitcoin. It’s money for everyone, regardless of where you are coming from, your race or creed or whatever. So it’s the best.” – Alakanani Itireleng We talk about: How her sons illness and death lead to the first meetup The internet as “white people’s problem” The high unemployment rate in Botswana The cost of internet connections Ponzi schemes and how they are disturbing bitcoin adoption Bitcoin usecases and regulation in Botswana Exchanging the local currency Pula to Bitcoin African countries on the forefront of adoption Her opinion about Libra and Lightning Mobile Money in Botswana The Future of Bitcoin in Botswana This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters.I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and the Card Wallet, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware wallet BitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network. This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work. Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world. Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work. This special is also brought to you by the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network. Sponsors Widget not in any sidebarsSupporters TRANSCRIPT Anita PoschHello, Alakanani. I’m happy that I’m here. Finally, I found my way from Europe to Botswana. Thanks for the invitation, we are just setting up a Bitcoin and Lightning node. How and when did you find out about Bitcoin? Alakanani ItirelengOkay, Um, my journey with Bitcoin started in 2012, on the personal level when I started trying to find ways in which I can, like, make money online to help my son.That’s my son, right on the wall. Yeah, he was, he was sick and was having ah, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, which is, like a heart disease kind of.So he got, like, really, really sick, and he was having an issue with the lungs and all that. So I wanted to find ways in which I can, like, work and get extra money, totake him out of Botswana to get medical help. So that’s when I came across this Bitcoin thing in 2012.And that was, like, early 2012 maybe January or so, because I know a few months back a few months later, my son passed away.So and, uh, then I stopped doing Bitcoin. Anita PoschYou had enough stress and yeah. Alakanani ItirelengYeah, I had enough stress and stuff. So I paused the Bitcoin thing.And then in 2013 I was like, you know, there’s something about that thing that I learned, so I should, like, go back to it and study, it a little bit more. See how I can help other people.At that moment, the idea was to set up a nonprofit to help kids who were like my kid, so I went back, and started doing a lot of reading. I wasn’t, like, very, very good at understanding what it was.But I have a drive to set up a community. So I remember I had, like, 10 friends or so and I called a Meetup my first, Bitcoin Meetup in 2013. Anita PoschWow. In 2013, cool. Alakanani ItirelengYeah, so then I called my friends and I told them the little knowledge that I had about Bitcoin and I told them the possibilities in Bitcoin about you making your own money and stuff and how it would have been better than the Pula. You know, it was all about that. Anita PoschDid people here understand it? And follow your path from the beginning on did they say I don’t understand it? Alakanani ItirelengYou know, a lot of people have got issues with anything that has to do with the Internet.You know, a lot of people have got issues, you know, anything that has to do with the Internet is a scam, or it’s there to steal their money. Or it’s white people’s problem. Anita PoschWhite people’s problem. Okay. Anything with the internet? Alakanani ItirelengYeah, yeah, they always have. A lot of people have that mentality.We say ……… meaning it’s a white people’s issues, kind off, it’s white peoples thing.Yeah, you know, in the beginning people had that kind of thing. When using the Internet……….., things for the white people.So when you introduce something like Bitcoin, so it was kind of difficult in the beginning.People do not understand what I was on about. How can there be money that can be on the Internet and stuff like.They’re used to paper money and all that. So I have, like, do a lot of reading and in the beginning it was so tough I didn’t have all the answers, though I must say I have not all the answers now, but I’m better.So at that moment I didn’t have, like, all the answers, like lot of answers.So I had to go through a lot of reading so that I can empower the people that are following me. So that’s how it started. Anita PoschCan we get a little back to the general situation here in Botswana?I’ve been to Zimbabwe in the last 2.5 weeks.And the situation there is really, really bad with the economic situation And people are lining in for petrol for hours for nights they are waiting for the fuel and then they don’t get it maybe.People have nothing to eat, No work. How is the situation in Botswana? Alakanani ItirelengI won’t say we are bad, bad. No. People can still go to the bank and get money. People can still get petrol.The only thing is now unemployment rate is high. I think it has doubled to 18.97% around 20% and it’s growing. It’s growing like, you know.Ah, that is like the statistics for 2019 I think, and a lot of graduates who are graduating every year from the universities. So it keeps on piling adding cause we have got universities and colleges. We’ve got all that way. Students are graduating every year. Anita PoschIs this a free education here? Alakanani ItirelengSo you get kind of. It’s kind of a student loan or kind of you create a loan or a grant. The government pays for you and then when you’re done with school and you’re like pay back the money if you don’t have a job, then you don’t pay. Nobody has been arrested yet.Yeah, so that kind of situation is the issue of jobs, you know, like there’s so many so many people were, um, industry with no jobs.I remember. I think it was 2019, if it’s not 2018 when some graduates, you know, went on a peaceful demonstration or whatever they called a riot or whatever then, because they were beaten for that. So they were beaten by the police, they were not allowed to demonstrate.So you could see it’s because people were crying like we have graduated. Where we go from here. Sorbet.So there are no jobs.Yeah, that’s the big thing. That was the big challenge we are having right now, in Botswana, every year we’re piling maybe 5000 or more or graduates on the IT field, for example, like 5000 or more.But think off others also, we were not IT. How many do we have every year who are graduating and no jobs? Anita PoschCan you get anything in the supermarkets? And then the other question is, can people afford it? Alakanani ItirelengYeah. I mean, like, we’ve got shops off different standards.Yeah, we were, like, expensive shops, like Woolworths. You know who the Whos and whos will go there going buy stuff. And then we have got, you know, middle class kind of shops, and then we have got, like low class kind of shops. Anita PoschBut are there many people that are suffering from hunger? Like in Zimbabwe, I think. Alakanani ItirelengYeah, definitely there are. That’s why we have, like, social workers.So what happens is we have got kind of poverty eradication schemes and the staff, like for example, if there’s offen there is given a card, there’s a card,which you can use they put money in it, and then they can like $80 all $90 or so.So then they can go and get food, even though there is also a destitute program kind of. Yeah, they can register as destitutes and the government can give them money on a monthly basis for basics. Anita PoschAnd do you think that the pessimism against the Internet or that you could earn money over the Internet, is this going away? Or is this I mean, with the young people coming out off university? Alakanani ItirelengYeah, young people are changing the whole dynamics, that is changing the whole culture. They are not stubborn.They’re open to possibilities and different cultures, different opinions.They’re not like our parents who were like, don’t do this. You don’t go there. You don’t go there. So nowadays, in towns, for example, that’s where we have a lot of young people in towns.So that’s where you see that. Dynamics have changed with people using so many smartphones laptops, you know. Anita PoschHow good is the Internet connection here? And how much do you have to pay for it? Alakanani ItirelengI think my Internet is not that good, ah, compared to like when I was in Kenya I could see how quick it was when I was in South Africa it’s quick, but I hear it’s expensive, so here I think the Internet is not that good, like the one that I’m using. It’s not that good. And also I’ll think it’s expensive. Anita PoschHow much do you pay for a month? Alakanani ItirelengMine is like 2 MB. But it’s never 2 MB bandwith. It’s always one point something.So I pay, yeah it’s very slow. So I pay like 40 dollars. Anita Posch40 USD? Alakanani ItirelengYeah, a month it’s unlimited, but very slow. It’s expensive.Yeah, so if you need a good, good one, you’ll have to pay, like $150 dollars. Anita PoschAnd on the smartphone? Do you also have these social media bundles? Alakanani ItirelengYes, we do have, they may have WhatsApp or Facebook bundles. It is called social media bundles, and then they can have the full one.So, for example, with the network that I’m using called Orange, they’ll give you for a day, one day Internet. Also, you will pay like a dollar for a day or so, and then after a day it expires. Anita PoschHow could people use Bitcoin here when the Internet connections are so expensive? Do you have an idea? Alakanani ItirelengIf, for example, they can use their Internet that they’re using the small internet they’re using to earn bitcoin, for example, then they can be able to pay for the Internet and then use bitcoin. People still pay, even if it’s expensive.They paid to download movies to stream videos, which actually is not giving them any money. It’s making them to lose more money.So if for to use my Internet, my data, why not use it to earn bitcoin so that I can pay for my data and earn more bitcoin. Anita PoschSo what are the properties about Bitcoin that interests you the most? Alakanani ItirelengI mean, like, it’s easy to send money to receive money from anywhere. No restrictions like PayPal have restrictions for other countries.I think Nigerians are not using PayPal, so Bitcoin allows me to use and receive money from anyone and send it to anyone around the world without discriminating.So that’s the most excellent thing about Bitcoin. So it’s for everyone.It’s money for everyone, regardless of where you come from, your race or creed or whatever, so it’s like, yeah it is the best. Anita PoschAnd do you think that the people here can connect with it and realize that, or do they still think it’s, ah, white Internet? Alakanani ItirelengNo, no, no. I think now as young people, especially are like into it some for whatever reasons like, for example, some. They’re doing it because they join some scheme. Whatever somebody has promised them, we can make money very quick.If you put $10 today, tomorrow you will have $20,000 they believe, and some they’re using it for that.But young people are like, really embracing them. Like I believe when you come to my meet up tomorrow, you’re gonna see a lot of young people.They’re the ones who are like they like a lot of them. Were like theySo we’re like they’re into the Internet there into trying to find ways to make money. Because they are unemployed?It’s painful to be unemployed. That’s what you know. You will see. Like a lot of young people, embracing the Internet. It is no longer, it is not a white people thing.Now they are also the government is trying, for example, to introduce computers in primary school level.So we see the introduction of computers slowly, slowly by giving I students tablets.Eventually people will understand we’ll know the generation that is coming is gonna be better than the one that is before us. Yeah. Anita PoschYou just mentioned the government. How is regulation here with Bitcoin? Alakanani ItirelengQuiet. Nothing. Last year in November, we were called to like some kind of consultative meeting? So we went there as Satoshicentre.And they were asking us a lot of questions, so we told them. They said, no. We want to know what is happening so that if there is anything that we need to know, like told, tell us what is happening.So for me, I think the way like they are open even though that’s the like not yet there.But they’re open for discussions. So I think if there is, it’s just up to us to like, make sure that we we keep on showing them what is happening and in Bitcoin and what not.You can even see there’s a Bitcoin ATM in Gaborone at airport junction.Yeah, there’s a Bitcoin ATM. So it’s there. It’s been used. Yeah, as long as you just go and declare what you’re doing.I think that’s why they want you to declare what you are doing and think, even even when it comes to the issues off tax, you can still pay your taxes. Anita PoschI mean, you only have to cash out in Pula then and pay the taxes. Alakanani ItirelengThen you pay the taxes. Yeah. So I think I think they’re open for that. They have not been like shown any resistance for us, they are only against the Ponzi schemes. Anita PoschYeah, because I think the Golix exchange in Zimbabwe has been shut down. Maybe because of the many Ponzi schemes and and MLM things because people were ripped off their Bitcoin and they bought Bitcoin on Golix. So was that the reason? Do you know something? Alakanani ItirelengI don’t really know what was the issue with Golix, because it was one of the best exchanges in Zimbabwe I even went there. I saw their Bitcoin ATM. It was a beautiful Bitcoin ATM and they were doing good.So I don’t know, maybe it’s because people now they don’t know how to differentiate between what Bitcoin is and what Ponzi schemes are. Somebody calls and says, “Hey, I want to join Bitcoin.”You can see even the way they say, … Anita PoschJoin Bitcoin! Alakanani ItirelengThen you see, people are still confused. They don’t know, is Bitcoin something that you can join? How can I say, I want to join Dollar. Anita PoschYeah. Thank you. What do you think ar…
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